[sportster64]

If a dvd is 720x480 resolution - that works out to a 1.5 aspect ratio not a 1.78 aspect ratio - what am I missing here ??? Are dvd's not natively encoded in a true 16:9 aspect ratio and if not - why ? Also - is an anamorphic dvd 720x480 resolution.

 

[gks]

Your answers lie here:

http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html

 

[sportster64]

In all of that - it still is not clear what the res is for widescreen dvd:where they are comparing Laser Disc (LD):

And still not clear why 720x480 is not 1.78 aspect - :


"Resolution: In numerical terms DVD has 345,600 pixels (720x480), which is 1.3 times LD's approximately 272,160 pixels (567x480). Widescreen DVD has 1.7 times the pixels of letterboxed LD (or 1.3 times anamorphic LD). As for lines of horizontal resolution, DVD has about 500 while LD has about 425 "